Category Archives: Reading Festival 2015

Those of you outside the UK may not have come across Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes.

Frank Carter is one of the last of a breed, a true punk rock wild man. Carter’s energy and aggression onstage has to be seen to be believed and when I say aggression that is exactly what I mean. Frank has been known to punch members of the audience is they piss him off.

I caught Frank’s set at this years Reading Festival where he turned in an incredible performance. On this occasion Frank even showed us that he has a softer side too 🙂

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Frank Carter

Those of you outside the UK may not have come across Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes.

Frank is one of the last of a breed, a true punk rock wild man. Frank energy and aggression has to be seen to be believed and when I say aggression that is exactly what I mean. Frank has been known to punch members of the audience is they piss him off.

I caught Frank’s set at this years Reading festival and Frank even showed us that he has a softer side too 🙂

Never in a million years would I have ever bought a ticket to watch pop Princess Charli XCX. I am big enough to admit that’s can mean that I miss out on some good music at times.

Whilst at Reading Festival I was on my way to watch and photograph Catfish and the Bottlemen when the heavens opened and the rain poured down. With a half hour to spare i thought it might be fun to pop in to the dance stage to photograph Charli XCX. I was amazed at what I found. This girl was a bunch of fun. Her energy, enthusiasm and attitude were amazing. Now I have to say that Charli’;s style of pop rap really isn’t my thing but my word this girl is entertaining!

I never miss a chance to see Frank Turner. He is one of those artists who manage to turn every performance into a unique and memorable event. Whether Frank plays with the sleeping Souls, with his hardcore outfit Mongol Horde, or as was the case on this occasion, he plays solo he always gives it his all.

This year marked Frank’s 9th appearance at Reading festival and then festival republic stage was absolutely crammed for his set. There was also a huge overspill onto the grass areas outside the tent and everyone was there for one reason, a Frank Turner sing-along. They were not to be disappointed.

It is incredible how Turner can engage an audience but there it was again. Just Frank and his acoustic guitar and a packed audience singing along to every song and fixated on his every word. It is clear that Turner loves performing at reading, he is a huge fan of the festival and the Reading crowd love him back.

Turner opened his set with “The Angel Islington” from his new album, Positive Songs For Negative People and finished with a cover of Queens “Somebody To Love”. Between these were were treated to 14 songs drawn from all of Franks albums. We had huge favourites like “The Way I Tend To Be”, “Photosynthesis” and “I Still Believe” interspersed with rarities like “Isabel.” The one thing that every song shared was the fact that the audience knew every word of every song and sang along to every word at the top of their lungs.

My favourite moment was probably “Recovery” from Tape Deck Heart certainly one of my favourite Turner songs. Undoubtably the most moving moment was Frank’s rendition of “Song For Josh” a tribute to a friend who took his own life as a result of depression, something Frank has suffered from himself. It has been very clear throughout Turners career that his songs are deeply personal and this is perhaps the reason that his songs resonate so much with his fans. It is very clear that Frank feels the loss of Josh very deeply and the emotion comes over loud and clear when he performs the song live.

I look forward to seeing Frank take the new songs on the road on his UK tour later this year.

I discovered Beartooth at this years Download Festival and they blew me away. I was thrilled to find out that they were also playing in “The Pit” at Reading Festival last weekend, it was a show that I was not going to miss.

The good thing about music festivals is that you invariably find new bands to love, the downside is that sets are often as short as 30 minutes as festivals attempt to please fans with as wide a range of artists as they can possibly cram in. Such was the case with Beartooth’s set, it was to be a 30 minute set but a set of such energy and intensity that everyone in and around the tent was emotionally drained and exhausted by the end of it.

Some bands are clearly focused around a front man, Morrissey with the Smiths, Robert Smith with the Cure and so it is with Beartooth. Caleb Shomo is a front man like few others. He has a brooding angry intensity that is rarely equaled much less surpassed. Shomo’s lyrics are full of angst, suffering and anguish and he frequently screams his lyrics in the style of the heaviest metal core bands. In my view the presence of rebelliousness and punk style melodies and hooks in most of the songs in Beartooths debut album Disgusting mean that they sit more comfortably within the hardcore punk genre. It is perhaps a moot point and indicative of the current obsession with trying to label bands across far too many genre’s within rock music.

Unsurprisingly all seven songs from their short set came from the debut album. Opening with “The Lines” Shomo proceeded to scream snarl and spit his way through “Relapsing,” “In Between” and “I Have A Problem” but it was when he got to “Dead” that Shomo really showed us what he is capable of. “Beaten In Lips” is one of Beartooth’s more melodic songs, the anthemic chorus lines may be sing-a-long but they do little to challenge the call to arms the song truly is. This is a song with dark and disturbing lyrics, a tale of child abuse, but one that urges the survivor to “keep living loud and proud.”

As Shomo hit “Body Bag” the crowd went absolutely nuts, well even more than they were already. The mosh pit went into an absolute frenzy and the entire crowd screamed back the lyrics “one life, one decision, make sure it ends with you still living.”

Do have a look at the video’s if you are not familiar with Beartooth, they are not from Reading but they do have festival footage which gives you a good idea of the intensity that beartooth create.

Make no mistake, Beartooth are the real deal. Shomo is nothing less than mesmeric as a performer and the band is as tight as a camel’s ass in a sandstorm. Beartooth have come a long way in a short time and on the back of a single album. They have what it takes to become massive. This is a band that will be headlining festivals like Download and Reading in two or three years time if they can maintain their progress.

They have already hit the top five in my list of favourite contemporary rock bands.